SUBSCRIBE:

Twelve years on, no justice for Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze

Share

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - 17 September 2012 - Impunity for killings and attacks on journalists prevail in Ukraine. 16 September marked the twelfth anniversary of the killing of investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze, yet the masterminds behind his killing have still not been brought to justice. Unresolved cases also include Ihor Aleksandrov a journalist killed in 2001, Vasyl Klymentyev a journalist disappeared in 2010, and Volodymyr Honcharenko an ecologist killed in 2012.

"ARTICLE 19 marked the twelfth anniversary of Georgiy Gongadze's murder with deep sadness. Not only because the life of this young journalist was brutally taken away, but also because over ten years of convoluted criminal investigations and court proceedings have seen no significant result," said Dr Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19's Executive Director. "The impunity in his case has cast a long shadow over freedom of expression in Ukraine, demonstrating the dangers faced by those who dare to speak out critically, and the lack of protection afforded to them by the state.

"We call on the authorities to finally ensure a full and proper investigation into Gongadze's case as well as those of fellow journalists Vasyl Klymentyev and Ihor Aleksandrov. A prompt and effective investigation must also be carried out into the recent murder of ecologist Volodymyr Honcharenko. It is important that these crimes are recognised as crimes against freedom of expression," she continued.

The Ukrainian authorities have still not fulfilled their promise to bring the masterminds behind Gongadze's case to account. On 26 June 2012, Ukraine's Higher Special Court upheld a lower court decision to retract the criminal charges against former President Leonid Kuchma, and by doing so closed public access to information linked to the criminal charges. In an interview with ARTICLE 19, Valentyna Telychenko, the lawyer for the journalist's widow, Myroslava Gongadze, said: We are concerned that once again the focus is only on the perpetrators and that the masterminds are left out of the picture. High level government officials and politicians should not be shielded from being investigated."

Previously, in October 2011, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that evidence collected by Mykola Melnychenko, the former Major of the State Department of Guard and former bodyguard to President Kuchma, was done so illegally and could not serve as grounds for criminal charges.

Violence, threats, intimidation, and harassment against media professionals and organizations continued; in the most alarming case of the year, a car bomb killed prominent journalist Pavel Sheremet in July.

“After the initial optimism during the Euromaidan movement, many journalists have become disillusioned. They are faced with the triple challenge of the war in the Eastern part of the country, the economic crisis and the digitalization of mass media.”

Several pieces of media legislation were passed, including laws on access to information, protections for journalists who are attacked in the course of their work, and the privatization of publicly owned print media.

In spite of the generally high quality of legislation, the reality of implementation is less impressive. Citizens may freely express their views, and collect and disseminate information, but access to free and pluralistic media and to public information held by the authorities is inadequate. Journalists’ working conditions are not secure enough to work safely and remedies for violations of journalists’ rights or attacks on journalists are ineffective.

Pakistan is among the countries that do not properly investigate and prosecute crimes against media professionals. Because of the near absolute level of impunity, most of the people who attack, injure or even murder media journalists in Pakistan remain free.

The report is based on incidents of crimes committed against journalists recorded by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) during the period 2012 to 2016. Most of the incidents of crimes against journalists, particularly killings, reported during this period are related to acts of politically motivated violence.

In the 27 cases of journalists murdered for their work in India since CPJ began keeping records in 1992, there have been no convictions. More than half of those killed reported regularly on corruption. The cases of Jagendra Singh, Umesh Rajput, and Akshay Singh, who died between 2011 and 2015, show how small-town journalists face greater risk in their reporting than those from larger outlets, and how India's culture of impunity is leaving the country's press vulnerable to threats and attacks

Latin America is, by far, the most dangerous region of the world for environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs). The lack of effective guarantees of human rights protection in Latin American States has created this dire situation.

Press freedom in the Philippines continued to be under attack from 2014 to 2015. The killing of journalists is continuing, with four journalists killed from May 2014 to May 2015. The trial of the accused masterminds of the Ampatuan (Maguindanao) Massacre and their supposed henchmen is continuing, but with a primary accused was released, while a witness in the same case was killed.

This 96-page report profiles eight “strongmen” linked to police, intelligence, and militia forces responsible for serious abuses in recent years. The report documents emblematic incidents that reflect longstanding patterns of violence for which victims obtained no official redress.

Journalism in South Asia is far from an easy profession, as the 12th annual review of journalism in the region "The Campaign for Justice: Press Freedom in South Asia 2013-14" portrays. But this year's report also tells the story of the courage of South Asia's journalists to defend press freedom and to ensure citizens' right to information and freedom of expression in the face of increasing challenges to the profession and personal safety.

RWB report is being published ahead of the presidential election scheduled for 5 April. It is the fruit of a fact-finding visit to the northern provinces of Parwan, Kapisa and Panjshir in September 2013

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.